Review: Noragami

Yukine is not pleased to be stuck in a show with these people.

Three Episode Test: Noragami

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Warning: The following review contains SPOILERS and a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


I originally picked up Noragami because I saw that it had potential. That potential was based on its solid world building and characters who had a foundation on which they could develop. Over the course of the show, more characters were introduced, there was some danger, and there was this big final battle at the end. But, the question of whether it lived up to its potential is quite simple. Do I care about the main characters, who a lot of time and effort was spent on trying to convince me to care about their trials in the world of gods, favors, "regalia", and disembodied souls.

This reaction is clearly necessary each time her soul is detached from her body.

That last one applies to the main girl, Hiyori. Her problem is that she is an ordinary teenage girl whose soul has become less attached to her body. It will often detach and chase after the other spirit characters in their antics. But, other than a cut to her body lying on the ground and her over-the-top reaction, there aren't any negative consequences for her predicament. And since nothing is at stake, her story isn't interesting to watch Even when her memories are stolen near the end of the series, and she forgets about Yukine and Yato, it doesn't feel like she really loses anything. Sure, Yukine and Yato lose something, but Hiyori doesn't. It's as if she exists only has a plot device to cause emotions in other characters, and is not a character herself worthy of a compelling story.

On the other hand, Yukine's story is plenty compelling. He is a human ghost, who wants to live again, but is stuck being Yato's "regalia", or a weapon to fight the "Shadows" in this world. The thing is, he desperately wants to interact with the people of the human world, but he can't. He sees students his age making friends and having happy lives, and he is unable to have that. Instead, he's stuck with a loser of a god, forced to do menial jobs for practically nothing. So, when he acts out, it's a reasonable reaction to his situation. And his actions do have consequences, as Yato's "regalia", his bad deeds taint Yato and nearly kill him. This results in the climatic scene of his arc, where he has to admit his bad deeds, why he did it, and how desperately he wants to be friends with someone. That scene causes actual change Yukine's character, as he is forced to mature. It even causes Yato and Hiyori to treat him differently. I found his arc to be the strongest in the show, and by a wide margin.

Yukine desperately wants to be an ordinary Japanese school boy.

As for his boss, Yato starts off as someone who is easy to root for. He has the Sisyphean task of earning enough money to build a shrine to himself at 5 yen per wish granted. When the show starts, Yato is shown to be working hard to advertise himself as a god who can solve problems and do favors. He'll look for a cat, clean a bathroom, or any other menial task just to get that sweet 5 yen coin. The thing is, he is a complete loser who mooches off of Hiyori as much as he can get away with. This is funny at times when it's just him that is suffering for being pathetic. But, when his failure causes his new charge, Yukine, to suffer, he becomes much less sympathetic. The other major issue is that the comedic tone is often used when he is doing his tasks make it difficult to take him seriously. This creates a weird tonal break when things get serious later in the show.

This especially comes to a head with two gods that for some reason want to try to kill  Yato. First up, a big-boobed female god named Bishamon who wants revenge on Yato because he killed a former "regalia" of hers. They fight, nothing really comes of it, and their rivalry is never spoken of again. The second god is a god named Rabou that Yato used to work with. The two of them were "calamity gods", or gods who did tasks that were, say, less than nice. All right, they straight up murdered people. Anyway, the two of them have a big fight where Hiyori's memories of Yato and Yukine are at stake. During the fight, her memories are lost, then regained in some silly bit of deus ex machina bullshit, and then Rabou somehow absorbs a Shadow to get stronger. The fight ends with Rabou saying he wanted Yato to be the one to kill him, and Rabou gets what he wants. I found this fight in particular to be boring. There was no context for the fractured relationship between Yato and Rabou, which would have been necessary for me to care. All that was shown were a few cryptic scenes of them slaughtering people together repeated a few times. This ending is poor, as it has little to do with the rest of the show, and felt extremely rushed.

Such a humble god is Yato.

As for good points of Noragami, there are a few aside from Yukine's arc. The Shadows were legitimately creepy. And what made them creepy had little to do with their large, dark bodies, and everything to do with the creepy way they spoke, changing voices on every word to come across as unsettling to listen to. There was also the explanation of how gods and spirits live in this world, and can interact with people, without the public knowing that they are there. The best way I can describe it is that they project a version of the Somebody Else's Problem field (thank you, Douglas Adams) and so people will see them, but immediately forget about them. This fact is what drives a wedge between the spirits and the humans, except for Hiyori, because of her tenuous position in between the two groups.

So, Noragami was a mixed bag. Sometimes it really worked, like with Yukine and the world building. Sometimes, it didn't, like with Hiyori's story or making Yato a sympathetic character. There are worse shows to watch, especially this season, but that doesn't mean it was really worth my time. I guess I'll close by saying that it had its moments, but in the end, it didn't really do anything memorable.

Final Score: 5/10